Why India will hope that if it rains in their Asia Cup game vs Pakan today, it keeps on raining | Cricket News

As of Friday, weather.com reckons there’s an 84 percent chance of rain hampering India’s high-octane Asia Cup meeting against Pakan on Saturday in Kandy. AccuWeather believes it’s 85 percent.
An unfortunate piece of news for the thousands of fans who’ve traveled to watch the arch-rivals lock horns for the first time since that nail-biting T20 World Cup meeting last year that saw the Men in Blue inch past their neighbors in the last over.
Showers marring the contest is unlikely to affect the progress of the two teams in the six-team tournament, with Pakan having dented Nepal’s hopes with a 238-run thrashing. Points shared between the two may not be the worst takeaway for the men in blue. Definitely not worse than the prospect of dark clouds hovering over Pallekele with no rain and strong winds. Because if it rains on Saturday and stops, leading to a cloud cover above and the game below, catastrophe may strike early in the all important white-ball season for Rohit Sharma’s men. Two words, full parenthesis: Pakan’s pacers.

The trio of Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf aren’t new to the business of troubling the Indian top order – leaving those that follow, backpedaling. Be it Shaheen’s dual strikes in the 2021 T20 World Cup meeting that saw Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul’s worst fears come true as the new white ball went right through their defence. Or be it their last meeting in Melbourne where Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah bagged the two, and Suryakumar Yadav to leave India even more vulnerable in the powerplay.
Pakan’s Shaheen Shah Afridi attends a practice session ahead of their one day international cricket match of Asia Cup with India in Pallekele, Sri Lanka on Friday. (AP)
The trio is responsible for 11 dismissals in the last four India-Pakan meetings — all of which have been T20Is. As the two clash in the 50-over format for the first time since 2019, an additional six overs to bowl for all three makes the case for an even tougher test for Rohit Sharma and Co. Since 2022, Shaheen has the best bowling average (23.08) against top 10 ODI sides, followed Haris (23.43) and Naseem (28.20). This year, they have already taken 49 wickets among themselves.
Why, one would ask? And why more so for India? After all, India also have the likes of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami available. The key difference is the speedometer. Remember that insane graphic from last year’s T20 World Cup: in which Pakan stood as the only team clocking almost 140 KPH as their average pace in T20s since 2018. The three quicks they’ve confirmed for Saturday’s contest aren’t new to the same.

While a common junoon for pace binds them, the three are anything but same in terms of their execution. While Shaheen likes to pitch the ball closer to/in the fullish zone than the length, his recent new-ball partner from the other end in Naseem is a raw pacer who likes to bang the ball hard on the strip and take the attack to the batters. With the two finishing their first spell in the powerplay or either being forced off early, Babar has the luxury to call in favors from Haris. He’s someone who can induce false shots off his good length deliveries, courtesy of that pinpoint length coupled with fierce pace.Most Read
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With Shaheen, Pakan also add a layer of the angular advantage a left-arm bowler brings against right-handed batters — who are blinded in the right eye when the left-armer comes from over the wicket. Former India coach Ravi Shastri — who saw Shaheen run riot in Dubai a couple years ago — explains the threat at hand.

“He will always be a threat if he can swing the ball at his pace,” Shastri told ESPNCricinfo. “He’s fully fit now. I don’t think he was at the T20 World Cup in Australia. Short of match practice and it showed. But, having said that, in this format of the game with 10 there with a new cherry in his hand, he’ll be a challenge.”
Looking at Indian batters available for selection on Saturday (excluding KL Rahul), no one averages beyond 26 against left-arm pacers since January 2022 other than Shubman Gill — who is yet to face Afridi in senior international cricket. For India’s top run getter across formats this year, rain forgiving, Saturday will be a first taste of Pakan’s express attack. But even he would hope for the clear skies above coming in to face that new cherry former India coach has raised sirens about.